How do the Prince George Cougars account for Saturday's 9-1 loss to a Vancouver Giants team they'd beaten twice at home the previous weekend?
That's a question they will have to answer many times over the next few days in practice when they're getting bag-skated as punishment for their worst effort of the season.
From start to finish, there was nothing for fans of the Cougars tuned in to the game from Vancouver to get excited about as the Giants ended the Cougars' win streak at four games.
Jackson Houck and Alec Baer each scored three times, while Matt Bellerive, Carter Popoff and Joel Hamilton also scored for Vancouver. The Giants (6-4-0-0) outshot the Cougars 36-27 and went 3-for-6 on the power play.
"I don't think it was a tough night for the guys at all, I think they chose to take the easy way out and that's why you lose 9-1," said Cougars assistant coach Mike Hengen.
"I don't think if you put any effort forward you can lose 9-1 in this league. I don't feel sorry for them at all. We didn't want to work today and I'm sure we'll find the time to work either [Sunday] or Monday."
If this is the dawn of a New Ice Age in the history of the Cougars franchise under new management, the Giants have been a titanic iceberg intent on sinking the Cats' revival. In two home games against the Cougars this season, they've combined to outscore them 15-2.
Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds had to have felt like an abandoned skipper with his teammates jumping the queue to rush for the lifeboats. But there was nothing to save the Cougars (7-5-0-0) from the embarrassment of their most lopsided defeat in a season now 12 games old.
Edmonds allowed five goals on 26 shots through two periods before he got pulled and could hardly be faulted for the loss. He picked up where he left off in a near shutout, 3-1 win Friday in Seattle, continuing the form that led to consecutive 2-1 wins over the Giants a week ago. But he was left on his own far too many times in Saturday's game and coach Mark Holick mercifully replaced him with rookie Tavin Grant.
"Ty has been absolutely unbelievable for us and he made some bigtime saves for us early in the game and continued to make save but our guys just kept giving so many Grade-A chances," said Hengen. "Their attention to detail was absolutely zero and it was just a matter of time before the Giants were going to score a couple goals, It was an absolute shame we hung him out to dry."
Grant, a 16-year-old rookie, was welcomed to the game 24 seconds into the third period by Houck, who scored a power-play goal on a breakaway. Chase Witala broke up Payton Lee's shutout bid a half-minute later but Houck answered three minutes later with his hat-trick goal.
On a night when the Cougars' top scorers, Witala, Jari Erricson and Jansen Harkins, had plus/minus ratings of either minus-3 or minus-4, five Cougars -- defenceman Sam Ruopp and forwards Kody McDonald, Aaron Macklin, Tyler Mrkonjic and newcomer Jared Bethune -- came out of the game with even ratings.
Hengen liked Ruopp's willingness to fight Giants' tough guy Mason Geertsen near the end of the game, while Bethune, in his second game with the Cougars since leaving Lincoln of the USHL, drew an assist on Witala's goal for his second WHL point, also earned passing grades.
"Jared Bethune has been great since joining our team, he was outstanding [Friday] and he was a good player tonight," said Hengen. "He plays a good heavy game and he's definitely exciting for our hockey club and adds another weapon for us."
All five of the Cougars losses have been by greater than three-goal margins. With the high-flying Brandon Wheat Kings (8-2-1-0) coming to CN Centre to play the Cougars on Wednesday game at CN Centre, there's not a lot of time to correct the ugly elements which crept into their game in Vancouver.
